The Difference
by ilovetvalot
Summary: Based on the Fortune Cookie Friday prompt for "Chit Chat on Author's Corner" forum. Third story of five story arc. Story follows "The Illusion of Happiness" Garcia and Rossi have a heart to heart discussion regarding Derek Morgan. Pen/Morgan.


_**Author's Note: We have a couple of announcements for you all today. We're proud to announce that signups are open for the Fanfic Challenge - Round 4 on our forum, "Chit Chat on Author's Corner" or, as we like to call it, the "PYOP Challenge" (pick your own pairing challenge) through September 1st. For those interested, simply go to the forum to the PYOP Challenge thread and sign up with your favorite pairing. On September 2nd, we'll assign you a scenario to write provided by some of our lovely fellow authors. This will give everybody an opportunity to write what they love and provide readers with some awesome stories. Please sign up at the forum or shoot us a PM signifying your willingness to participate. So, please come join the fun and let's make this the most successful challenge yet!**_

_**We also have wonderful new interviews with the lovely Sarramaks and hot4cullenmen! Please check it out and let them know your thoughts!**_

**_We've also added a fun new prompt thread called, "Fortune Cookie Fridays" based on an idea submitted by LoveforPenandDerek. Come by and check it out...perhaps, it will feed the muse._**

_**Also, feel free to swing by the forum and leave your condolences on the thread set up for our late fellow author, JWynn, lost to us July 29, 2010.**_

_**And, as always, thanks to everybody still reading, reviewing, alerting and favoriting our stories. We couldn't do this without your support!**_

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**The Difference**

_**Fortune Cookie Prompt: A difference, to be a difference must make a difference.**_

David Rossi was a dead man walking, Penelope Garcia thought angrily as she stomped up the stairs Monday morning toward her former so-called friend's office.

What HAD that man been thinking?

For the entire morning, she'd been asking herself that very question. What he'd been thinking when he'd chosen to tell Derek Morgan her inner-most secrets, she couldn't fathom. Hell, she hadn't even divulged anything important to the wickedly astute blabbermouth.

But had that stopped him?

Of course freaking not!

"You!" Penelope accused, eyes blazing as she marched into his office, the door slamming in her wake. "You are living on borrowed time, my prying profiling pain in the ass!" she charged, pointing an orange tipped talon at him from the doorway of the office.

"Garcia," Dave greeted, raising his dark head from the computer that had held his attention and canting it to the side, "To what do I owe the pleasure this morning?" he asked dryly, his seasoned eyes assessing the obviously agitated woman standing..nay, bouncing…in front of his desk.

"Oh, trust me, Agent Arrogance," Garcia snapped, her hands dropping to rest on her fuchsia-covered hips, "Pleasure is one emotion you won't be experiencing with me in the foreseeable future! I thought we were friends, Rossi!" she hissed, angrily stomping her lime-colored heel-shod foot against his industrial grey carpeted floor.

"To my knowledge, we're STILL friends, Garcia," Dave frowned, narrowing his eyes on her flushed cheeks. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

"What's wrong with me?" Garcia yelped, lifting her hands in the air in a gesture of extreme exasperation. "What's wrong with me, he asks," she complained to the heavens, rolling her eyes as she stared at the drop ceiling. Focusing on his bland face, Garcia hissed, "I'll tell you what's wrong with me, Agent Nosier Than Thou! You blabbed my feelings...my personal, private feelings…to Derek! Feelings that I never said a freaking WORD to you about!"

"Yes, you did," Rossi replied easily, crossing his arms behind his head as he leaned back in his comfortable chair.

"No, I most certainly did NOT," Garcia denied vehemently, her curls bouncing as she shook her head furiously. Honestly, when had other people started reading her mind without her express, written permission?

"Garcia, I'm a profiler. I read people for a living. I've been doing it for longer than you've been alive. You don't need to open that very verbal mouth of yours for me to know your secrets. The truth's been written all over your face since I've known you...and probably, far longer than that," Dave explained evenly. "I simply took the bull by the horns."

"But…why?" Garcia asked furiously, the words coming out in a strangled scream. "I didn't ask you to do that! Things were fine the way they were. Now, he KNOWS. And because of your little guilt trip, he showed up Saturday morning professing love eternal! Do you know what a slap in the face it is for somebody like me to have their best friend be guilted into that level of pity!"

"So," Dave replied with a slow smile, his eyebrows raising slightly. "Our boy finally grew a pair?"

"NO!" Garcia exploded, stomping her foot again. "He got guilted into saying something he didn't mean by an over-aged bully," she countered with a pointed glare.

"Garcia, surely you've heard that in order for a difference to be a difference, it must make a difference. Face it, I made a difference Friday night," Dave contradicted, satisfaction etched into every line of his face as he settled back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest as he assessed the woman restlessly pacing in front of his desk.

Stopping abruptly, Garcia wheeled around to glare at her colleague. "Oh, cut the 'Confucius say' crap. You have single-handedly done what I've spent seven years avoiding. And now..."

"And now, what, Garcia?" Dave asked with twinkling eyes. "Now, you just might get the happy ending you deserve?"

"It's not that simple," Penelope grumbled, dropping her gaze to the floor as she scuffed the toe of her shoe against the rug, refusing to acknowledge the smug tone in his deep voice.

"What did you tell him, Garcia?" Dave asked gently, propping his chin against his hand.

"I told him that if he was really serious about me that he'd still feel that way in a month. To come back and see me then," she admitted uneasily, swallowing hard as she let out a deep breath. Turning her glare back in his direction, she complained, "So, thanks to you, in thirty days time, I'm doomed to disappointment."

"I disagree. You didn't see his face when I pointed out a few simple truths to him the other night," Dave shook his head, his heart softening as he watched Garcia's eyes widen and the slow flare of hope ignite in their depths.

"What truths?" Garcia whispered, immediately regretting her question. It didn't matter. Whatever Dave had said to Derek had only served to make things more complicated and convinced her best friend that she was to be pitied.

"Oh," Dave drawled, "things like the fact that you wouldn't be around forever. That, eventually, you'd find someone to make you happy...someone that wasn't HIM. He didn't like that at all," Dave said, grinning at the memory of Derek's rounded eyes and shocked expression.

"He didn't?" Garcia questioned weakly, her heart skipping a beat.

"No, Kitten," Dave said solemnly, "He didn't. You might not approve of my methods, but I had your best interests at heart. His, too, Garcia. He loves you. He just needed somebody to illustrate a few things to him in a way I'm famous for, if I do say so myself," Dave smirked. "And if it made a difference, so much the better."

Garcia frowned, but her earlier anger dissipated quickly under the weight of Rossi's revelations. "You're telling me the truth?" she demanded suspiciously, her doubts still needing some form of assurance.

"When have I ever wasted my valuable time lying to you, Garcia?" Dave asked with a stern glare in her direction.

"Never, I guess," she admitted grudgingly, her clenched fists relaxing slightly. "Fine," she sighed heavily, willing to concede that Dave's motivations might have been pure, "but the next time you decide to meddle in my life, could you at least give me a heads up?"

"No promises," Dave shrugged. "When time is of the essence, I tend to act first and explain later. But, if I know Derek, I won't have to say another word. I think your boy might have finally opened his eyes, Penelope."

"We'll see, I guess," Garcia muttered uncertainly, her lips twisting from side to side as she contemplated the change of events.

And, as Dave watched the normally animated woman walk from his office, he smiled. His plan was well on its way to fruition. And, with any luck, Derek Morgan had met his match.

And oh, how things were going to be different!

_**Finis**_

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_**Author's Note 2: Coming next Friday, the fourth story in this five story arc..."Come to Jesus, Young Sinner"! Please stay tuned.**_


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